A.

The Certainty of Death

· "We have no personal experiences of death. But we are sure that sooner or later we will die."

· "We are certain about our death because history attests that no one who had lived in the far past still exists today. We
are also certain about death because science tells us that anything that comes also goes. That nothing remains the same
forever—this is the law of entropy. Finally, we are certain about death because we have seen people die."

· "Death does not choose our age, our physical condition, our decision, or our position in life."

· "No matter how strong, powerful, wealthy, and well-situated a person may be, his strength, power, wealth, and social
position are of no avail when death summons him."

· "Death, it is said, is the greatest equalizer in life."

B. The Uncertainty in Death

· "Death is uncertain as to its time, place, and the way it happens. It always catches people unaware as the Boholanos
observes, 'Death comes to us whether we are standing or sitting' (Timbreza 2008, 35)."

· "We do not know whether life continues after death. And so we ask, does the death of our body mean the death of our
life? Or is there a truth to the promise that there is life after death?"

· "This question has perplexed philosophers, making philosophy initially as the search for answer to this question."

Know the Philosopher: Socrates

· "Socrates was born in Athens, Greece circa 470 BC... He is mostly admired for his thoughts and disposition toward
death... he willingly accepted the sentence and calmly welcomed death believing that death is a journey to immortality."

Two General Views on Death:

· Materialists: "Believe that a human person is nothing but a material entity. A human person does not have a spirit or
soul. Belief in the existence of the spirit or soul is considered an illusion. When the body dies, nothing exists after it."

· Plato (Spiritual View): "A human person is composed of body and soul... a human person is a soul in a body. When the
body dies, the soul continues to live. Through death, the soul is liberated from the trap of the body."

· Hindus: "Believe in the existence of the eternal soul. For them, when a human person dies the atman (human soul) is
either reincarnated to another being or is reunited with Brahman (The Supreme Being) depending on his/her state of
mind."

· Buddhists: "Do not believe in the existence of the permanent soul of the Hindus. They believe that just like anything in
the world a human person is impermanent and hence does not possess any enduring substance in him/her... The way
out of suffering, according to the Buddhists, is to expel any beliefs in the permanence and eternity of the soul."

Conclusion of Uncertainty:

· "And this is an unfortunate truth: death is certain and yet it brings us so much uncertainty."

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Lesson 6: Death’s Absurdity and Meaning

A. The Absurdity of Death

· "Death is the contradiction of life. This is an absurd condition according to Albert Camus."

· "The sad thing is, sometimes death comes at the peak of our success, as a Filipino saying goes, 'It was when he had
become well off that death snatched him away; it was when he had already become good that death cut him off'
(Timbreza 2008, 36)."

B. The Meaning of Death (Viktor Frankl)

· "Frankl believes that death does not render life meaningless. On the contrary, life becomes meaningful because of
death."

· "'If we were immortal, we could legitimately postpone every action forever; it would be of no consequence whether or
not we did a thing now...'"

· "'It is the face of death as absolute finis to our future and boundary to our possibilities; we are under the imperative of
utilizing our lifetimes to the utmost, not letting the singular opportunities—whose ‘finite’ sum constitutes the whole of
life—pass by unused.'"

· "It is death, according to Frankl, that gives meaning to our life."

C. Consciousness and Responsibility

· "Frankl conceives human persons as conscious and responsible being. For him, to exist as a human is to be conscious
and to be responsible."

· "To be conscious means to be aware of the meaning that concrete and singular situations bring us. To be responsible is
to seize the opportunity to experience or to create a meaning offered by the situation (Frankl 1973)."

· "I have two related existential tasks: the first is to be conscious of the meanings of life, and the second is to be
responsible for them (Frankl 1973)."

D. Death Actualizes Man’s Potentials

· Life, according to Aristotle, is a potency that has to be actualized. It is by living our lives that this potency is converted
into an act. Life, then, is a process of becoming, attaining being in death.

·Life is like the wax of a candle that loses itself by giving out light. The wax is lost but a light is created. Similarly, a human
person may have gone but the meanings he/she created stay forever; they are not lost but they are stored in eternity.

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CHAPTER 4: The Truth of Living and Dying

Lesson 7: The Phenomenon of Death

· "Heidegger uses the term Dasein to refer to a human person. Coming from two words: ‘Das’, (meaning there) and ‘Sein’
(meaning being), Dasein literally means there being."

· "He is interested not with the essence of the human person but with his/her existence in the world."

· "‘Being-in’ therefore does not refer to the fact of being located in a particular place... it rather signifies an involvement,
engagement, or preoccupation with entities in the world."

· "The “world” in being-in-the world does not refer to the physical world. It does not also refer to the sum of all things in
the world... ‘World’ is a system of references."

· "A human person is also a being-situated-in-time. That a human person is a being-situated-in-time means that he/she
has a past characterized as thrownness, present described as fallenness, and future as existentiality."

· "Thrownness refers to the given or fixed existence... a situation he/she did not choose."

· "Fallenness... To fall into the world of the “they”, therefore, means to be accessible to the wishes of the crowd."

B. A Human Person as a Being-toward-death

· "According to Heidegger, death is a possibility of not being able to be there in the world. It is a possibility of the
impossibility of life."

· "My death is my own and my own alone. No one can die on my behalf; proxy is impossible... My death is non-relational;
I have to face it alone. My death, too, cannot be outstripped; I cannot escape it... Death will certainly come though
indefinite as to when."

· "This experience of anxiety is natural... this awareness of the impending nature of my own death may lead me to live
an authentic life."

· "My awareness of my own death makes me aware of the fact that my life is my own life and that it is my responsibility
to live it according to my plans and not according to the wishes of the “they.”"

· "Living an authentic life means standing out of the “they” by asserting oneself through a human person’s thoughts and
actions, making his/her life his/her own project."

Lesson 8: Attitudes toward Death

A. Know Thyself

· "Socrates speaks: 'For this fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance
of knowing the unknown; since no one knows death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not
be the greatest good. Is there not here a conceit of knowledge, which is a disgraceful sort of ignorance?' (Plato 1992,
30)"

· "Just like Socrates, Gautama Buddha also believes that we are afraid of death because of our ignorance of our human
nature."

B. Live a Meaningful Life

· "Jesus embraced his death with the last words, 'It is finished.'"

· "If life indeed has a purpose or meaning, fulfilling that purpose or meaning would give us the same relief when Jesus
says, 'It is finished.'"
C. Live Fully in the Present Moment

· "Steve Jobs (2005) states: 'Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help
me make the big choices in life...'"

· "Ludwig Wittgenstein (2001, 87) writes: 'Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death... eternal life
belongs to those who live in the present.'"

D. Live Calmly

· "Marcus Aurelius (1964, 73) writes: 'Everything that happens is as normal and expected as the spring rose or the
summer fruit; this is true of sickness, death, slander, intrigue, and all the other things that delight or trouble foolish
men.'"

· "If death is natural, then it must happen for a reason. If it happens for a reason, we can say it is good."

E. Live Courageously

· "Heidegger says that our awareness of death leads us to live an authentic life."

· "Confronted with courage, death does not only become bearable but it becomes a source of spiritual transformation."